1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sugarless chewing gum products that are very flexible for prolonged periods of storage and which are prepared by formulating the product with aqueous hydrogenated starch hydrolysate that has been cooked to a moisture content of about 8.+-.4%. Glycerine may also be added with the cooked hydrogenated starch hydrolysate.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Other Related Art
Regular (non-bubble) sugarless chewing gum, in stick form, and as formulated prior to the present invention, has very poor cohesive, or flexible properties. Further, this lack of flexibility and cohesiveness becomes even more pronounced as the product ages during its shelf life. This has been found to be true, even when the product is made with relatively large amounts of plasticizing agents such as glycerin. Sugar (sucrose) based chewing gums, on the other hand, in stick form are relatively cohesive and flexible even after extended shelf life histories.
Further, various of the prior art chewing gum products have very low moisture contents, i.e., of about 1 to 2%, and also have relatively low equivalent relative humidity (ERH) values, i.e., of the order of about 10 to 25. During the storage of such products under ambient conditions of about 40 to 70% relative humidity and about 20.degree. to 30.degree. C., these (low value) ERH properties of such products will cause such products to absorb relatively large amounts of water from the atmosphere. Such increased amounts of water will adversely affect various qualities of the product, and adversely affect the stability of any water decomposible components of such products.
Thus, such products having very low ERH values would require that they be processed and wrapped under special atmospheric conditions of low humidity and controlled temperature. Such conditions are expensive and difficult to maintain.
Equivalent relative humidity (ERH) or relative vapor pressure is the humidity at which a foodstuff neither gains nor loses moisture and the figure is expressed as a percentage. A discussion of ERH relative to food products and a method for the determination thereof is to be found in "Chocolate, Cocoa and Confectionery," Science and Technology, Second Edition, 1980, Bernard M. Minifie, AVI Puglishing Co., Inc. Westport, Conn., U.S.A., Appendix I, pp. 672-677 (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference). The test procedure disclosed in such publication is the one used for testing and evaluating the compositions disclosed herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,895 discloses the preparation of a dried non-hygroscopic free flowing powder that is made by drying a higher polyalcohol, such as hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, with a concentrated protein extract. The dried material has a moisture content of about 2 to 6% and may be used as a sweetener in confections such as chewing gum to provide products having prolonged shelf life in terms of retained flexibility and softness. The dried hydrogenated starch hydrolysate may also be used in combination with hydrogenated starch hydrolysate syrup having a moisture content of 15 to 40%.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,962 discloses the preparation of sugarless chewing gum made with a specific aqueous hydrogenated starch hydrolysate that is designed to replace all or a portion of the mannitol previously used with other solid sweeteners, such as xylitol and/or sorbitol, in such products. The hydrogenated starch hydrolysate is used as an aqueous softening agent. When used in a liquid filling in the chewing gum, the hydrogenated starch hydrolysate may have a moisture content of 15 to 20% (column 4, lines 20-25 and column 9, lines 54-60). When used in the sugarless chewing gum composition the hydrogenated starch hydrolysate has a moisture content of 17 to 30%, depending, basically, on the amount of the hydrogenated starch hydrolysate that is used (column 8, lines 37-50). The lower the amount of the hydrogenated starch hydrolysate that is to be used, the higher is the moisture content of such material.
Commercially available aqueous hydrogenated starch hydrolysate which has a moisture content of about 20 to 35% has been proposed as a stabilizing agent for aspartame in chewing gum and other comestibles, see in this regard, U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 677,717 filed Dec. 4, 1984 in the names of D. R. Friello et al., and entitled "Comestible Containing Moisture And Shelf Storage Stabilized L-Aspartic Acid Derivative" and Ser. No. 677,716 filed Dec. 4, 1984 in the names of D. R. Friello et al., and entitled "Comestible Containing Moisture, CaCO.sub.3 and Shelf Storage Stabilized L-Aspartic Acid Derivative", and U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 865,493 filed May 20, 1986 and Ser. No. 867,821 filed May 27, 1986 as continuation-in-part applications of, respectively, said applications Ser. No. 677,717 and Ser. No. 677,716.
Cooked hydrogenated starch hydrolysate which has a moisture content of about 10.+-.6%, has also been proposed as a stabilizer for aspartame in sugarless chewing gums. See in this regard, U.S patent application Ser. No. 717,630 filed Mar. 29, 1985 in the names of Thomas J. Carroll et al. and entitled "Stabilized APM in Chewing Gum", and the continuation-in-part of said U.S. Ser. No. 717,630 filed on even data herewith as U.S. Ser. No. 840,299.
Prior to the present invention it has not been possible to provide, in stick form, regular sugarless gum which has the cohesive and flexible properties of good quality sugar based regular stick chewing gum.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide regular sugarless chewing gum, in stick form, which has the cohesive and flexible properties normally associated with regular sugar based chewing gum in stick form.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such stick form products as have a relatively high ERH.